The
Records Of The Assyrian Kings
As Found On
Assyrian Monuments
The following text was excerpted from Vol. 1, pages 357-402, of Sacred
Books And Early Literature Of The East, Charles F. Horne,
editor. Parke, Austin, and Lipscomb, Inc., New York & London,
publisher, 1917.
Notes and illustrations have been added by the present editor and were
not part of the original text.
Assyria began to rise to military power as early as the period of the
Tel-el-Amarna letters (1400 B.C.). At that time her rulers had become
rivals of Babylon. But the fighting Assyrian kings met many a rebuff,
and the age of their actual world-empire scarcely begins until we come
to King Shalmaneser III, who ruled from 858-824 B.C. Shalmaneser
was not, like the earlier Assyrian kings, a mere marauder, a ravager of
other lands. He was a statesman, an organizer, who tried to retain
permanent hold of the regions he had conquered, and to restore them to
prosperity under his control. Shalmaneser III is also the first Assyrian
king of whom we know definitely that he came in contact with the kings
of Bible story, the Hebrew rulers of Judah and Samaria, and the Aramaic
kings of Damascus.
Shalmaneser asserts his victory over all these western kings; but when
we allow for the boastful tone of Assyrian inscriptions it seems
probable that they fairly held their own against him. The consolidation
and extension of his power were mainly in his own valleys of the Tigris
and Euphrates. Several of Shalmaneser’s inscriptions have come down to
us, the most noted being the one here given and known as ‘the Black
Obelisk’ inscription. It is engraved on an obelisk of black marble,
about five feet high, which was set up in his capital. On all four sides
of the obelisk there are sculptured figures of vassals bringing tribute,
among them being the tribute of ‘Jehu of Israel,’ of Bible fame.
…Next come the longer and still more boastful inscriptions of Sargon
II (721-705 B.C.) and his son Sennacherib (705-681 B.C.). Both of these
grim and furious destroyers ravaged the surrounding lands with a cruelty
and a breadth of successful destruction previously unknown even to
Assyrian annals. Again and again Sargon II records of a captured city,
‘its king I flayed’ or ‘its warriors I set up on stakes.’ It was
in Sargon’s reign that the kingdom of Israel was finally destroyed,
though the Jewish history rightly attributes the final attack to his
predecessor, Shalmaneser V, who began the campaign but died before
completing it. Thus the actual destruction of Samaria, the capital of
Israel, was accomplished by Sargon, and it was he who dragged the ‘ten
tribes’ of the Hebrews away to Assyria as his captives and so utterly
dispersed them that we know them only as the ‘ten lost tribes.’
Sargon in his inscription describes this capture of Samaria, its
rebellion, and its second capture.
Sennacherib also tells of warring in Palestine, and boasts of his
success against Hezekiah, King of Judah. He makes no mention of the
story which the Bible tells of his losing an army by pestilence; but
then the Assyrian kings never mention their defeats. We know that
their campaigns were sometimes failures; but we have to read between the
lines of their boasting to discover these. Sennacherib admits quite
plainly that he did not conquer Jerusalem, but only held its king
besieged ‘like a caged bird,’ and then abandoned the attack, for
some reason which he did not care, in his pompous record, to admit.
The
Black Obelisk Of Shalmaneser III
The
Epigraphs Accompanying the Sculpture
“The Tribute of
‘Su’a, of the country of the Guzanians: silver, gold, lead, articles
of bronze, scepters for the King’s hand, horses, and camels with
double backs: I received.
The
tribute of Jehu, of the land of Omri, silver, gold, bowls of gold,
vessels of gold, goblets of gold, pitchers of gold, lead, scepters for
the King’s hand, and staves: I received.
The
tribute of the country of Muzri: camels with double backs, an ox of the
river ‘Saceya, horses, wild asses, elephants, and apes: I received.
The tribute of Marduk-pal-itstsar,
of the country of the ‘Sukhians: silver, gold, pitchers of gold, tusks
of the wild bull, staves, antimony, garments of many colors, and linen:
I received.
The tribute of Garparunda, of the country of the Patinians: silver,
gold, lead, bronze, gums, articles of bronze, tusks of wild bulls, and
ebony: I received.” [End of Inscription]
Editor’s note to the Black Obelisk inscription: The House of Israel
was not called “Israel” by the Assyrians, but instead, “Khumri,”
meaning the “House of Omri.” In the inscription above we see the
Israelite King Jehu identified by the Assyrians as from “the land of
Omri,” or Khumri. For additional information, see pages 70-72 of this
book for a discussion of the ‘Cymri’.
Inscription
Of Sargon II
In His Palace At Khorsabad
Palace of Sargon, the great King, the powerful King, King of the
Legions, King of Assyria, Viceroy of the gods at Babylon, King of the
Sumers and of the Akkads, favorite of the great gods…
I besieged and occupied the town of Samaria, and took 27,280 of its
inhabitants captive. I took from them 50 chariots, but left them the
rest of their belongings. I placed my lieutenants over them; I renewed
the obligation imposed upon them by one of the Kings who preceded me…
Jaubid of Hamath, a smith, was not the legitimate master of the throne;
he was an infidel and an impious man, and he had coveted the royalty of
Hamath. He incited the towns of Arpad, Simyra, Damascus, and Samaria to
rise against me, took his precautions with each of them, and prepared
for battle. I counted all the troops of the god Ashur; in the town of
Karkar, which had declared itself for the rebel, I besieged him and his
warriors, I occupied Karkar and reduced it to ashes. I took him,
himself, and had him flayed, and I killed the chief of the rioters in
each town, and reduced them to a heap of ruins. I recruited my forces
with 200 chariots and 600 horsemen from among the inhabitants of the
country of Hamath and added them to my empire.” [End of
Inscription]
Inscription
Of Sennacherib
In
the course of my campaign Beth-Dagon, Joppa, Benebarqua, Azuru, the
cities of Tsidqa, which had not quickly thrown themselves at my feet, I
besieged, I took, I carried away their spoil. The governors, chiefs, and
people of Ekron who had cast Padi, their king according to Assyrian
right and oath, into iron chains, and had, in hostile manner, given him
to Hezekiah of Judah – he shut him up in prison – feared in their
hearts. The kings of Egypt called forth the archers, chariots, and
horses of the king of Melukhkhi, a force without number, and came to
their help; before the city of Eltekeh they arranged their battle array,
appealing to their weapons. With the help of Ashur, my lord, I fought
with them and accomplished their defeat. The chief of the chariots of
the king of Melukhkhi my hands took alive in the fight. Eltekeh and
Temnath I besieged, I took, and carried away their spoil.
To the city of Ekron I went; the governors and princes, who had
committed a transgression, I killed and bound their corpses on poles
around the city. The inhabitants of the city who had committed sin and
evil I counted as spoil; to the rest of them who had committed no sin
and wrong, who had no guilt, I spoke peace. Padi, their King, I brought
forth from the city of Jerusalem; upon the throne of lordship over them
I placed him. The tribute of my lordship I laid upon him. But Hezekiah,
of Judah, who had not submitted to my yoke, I besieged 46 of his strong
cities, fortresses, and small cities of their environs, without number,
and by casting down the walls and advancing the engines,
by an assault of the light-armed soldiers, by breaches, by
striking, and by axes I took them; 200,150 men, young and old, male and
female, horses, mules, asses, camels, oxen, and sheep without number I
brought out from them, I counted them as spoil. Hezekiah himself I shut
up like a caged bird in Jerusalem, his royal city; the walls I fortified
against him, and whosoever came out
of the gates of the city I turned back. His cities, which I had
plundered, I divided from his land and gave them to Mitinti, King of
Ashdod, to Padi, King of Ekron, and to Tsil-Bal, King of Gaza, and thus
diminished his territory. To the former tribute, paid yearly, I added
the tribute of alliance of my lordship, and laid that upon him. Hezekiah
himself was overwhelmed by the fear of the brightness of my lordship;
the Arabians and his other faith warriors whom, as a defense for Jerusalem,
his royal city, he had brought in, fell into fear. With 30 talents of
gold and 800 talents of silver, precious stones, gukhli daggassi, large
lapis lazuli, couches of ivory, thrones of ivory, ivory, usu wood,
boxwood of every kind, a heavy treasure, and his daughters, his women of
the palace, the young men and young women, to Nineveh, the city of my
lordship, I caused to be brought after me, and he sent his ambassadors
to give tribute and to pay homage.”
[End]
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